Two weeks afterwards, August 8, following announcements of the staggering award, Monsignor Robert Rehkemper complained to the Dallas Morning News that "No one ever says anything about what the role of parents was in all this...They more properly should have known because they're close to the kids."

One mother of three victims, Gail Pawlik, furiously characterized the church official's remarks: "You can't say he's in denial. It's a profound arrogance, is what we're dealing with."

The monsignor's comments also enraged the parents of other abused boys, as well as the now maturing males themselves. President Tom Lemberger of The Linkup, a Chicago-based group that gives support to victims of clergymen's' hypocritical sex forays, quickly disputed the monsignor's unrepentant attitudes.

"My immediate reaction," he said, "is total outrage that a person such as a priest would make such comments. That's probably one of the most un-Christian things I've ever heard."

"For many parents," says Lemberger, "when priests take an interest in their children," he said, "they're happy. They feel honored, elated. The last thing they suspect is that a priest would be molesting their children. Parents are always the last, in most of these cases, to know."

Robert Hultz, a twenty-five year old plaintiff in the court case, one of ten, explained he'd been molested repeatedly between ages 10 to 14. He described himself as "completely outraged" by Monsignor Rehkemper's statements, and denied that his parents were in any way at fault.

"During this abuse," he says, "I felt this was an act of God because of where I was and who the priest was." The young man's mother, he explained, thought that being with a priest "was the safest place in the world."

Although ten men brought the suit against the Diocese of Dallas, the family of another (who had committed suicide at age 20) also took part. The culprit, The Reverend Rudolph Kos, 52, did not defend himself at the trial.

Kos, according to public records, had served a year in a juvenile detention center for having molested a neighbor prior to his entry into Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas. After an unsuccessful marriage, Kos' ex-wife complained to the diocese of her former husband's sexual interest in young boys.

A series of complaints and warnings found the Diocese of Dallas seemingly unconcerned, and even though fellow priests knew of his behavior, he was made a pastor in 1988.

Kos now lives in San Diego and works as a paralegal. He denies some of the accusations and is currently awaiting a criminal trial wherein he will face charges of sexually abusing two victims.

Monsignor Bell, judicial vicar of the Dallas diocese, and the cleric charged with overseeing legal entanglements, has attempted to play down the furious controversy inflamed by Monsignor Rehkemper's insensitive remarks about the boys parents. He says that what Rehkemper actually meant was that there is a need for all parents to be watchful of their children.